


Enter The Guardians

by Eustacia Vye (eustaciavye)



Series: Avengers Academy [3]
Category: Avengers Academy (Video Game)
Genre: GOTG Event, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 09:47:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10554258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eustaciavye/pseuds/Eustacia%20Vye
Summary: When the Cosmic Conservatory fell, the students had to gosomewhere.





	

The crash landing just outside the campus gates had caused a stir not only within Avengers Academy, but within the surrounding community. Sure, New York had more than its fair share of superheroes, but now there were _aliens._ With weird purple crystals studding the ground and drooling Chitauri roaming the sidewalks like members of the zombie apocalypse, it was a major invasion that tested the students.

Mostly the ones from the Cosmic Conservatory, at least.

Peter Quill was human as far as everyone could tell, though Fury was amazingly tightlipped about his origins. He carried around his Walkman and dance-walked his way between classes, only telling everyone "You gotta feel the music" when they complained about being bumped into on the way. Then again, he skipped a number of astronomy classes, preferring to dance at Club Galaxy. It was brightly lit in neon colors, and the drinks were bright, jewel-toned concoctions that simply appeared on the tables as soon as they were ordered.

Most of the other human students found it strange and stuck with Club A.

Gamora stayed on her own a lot, reading nihilistic poetry on the quad while tossing her sword into the air and catching it again without looking. Most students avoided her, but there were a few brave SHIELD recruits that thought they should enforce the rules for Fury and administrative staff. "You can't do that in the open!" one cried. "There are regulations here about the use of weapons."

She simply smiled at them as if they had told her a joke. "So. Which way to the assassin's class?"

"Wh-what?"

"I heard there was an underground fight club on campus. How do I join?"

"There's no such thing as a fight club on campus!" the poor SHIELD recruit said, scandalized.

Disappointed, she sighed and shook her head sadly. "I should have just stayed in my escape pod." She heaved another sigh, then rolled her sword in a wide arc. "I guess I should just practice on my own, then. Can't let my skills get rusty."

Those brave recruits weren't so brave after all. They all but disappeared immediately.

***

Professor Pym had a scarily wide grin on his face when he drew the Conservatory students into his office hours, clipboard in hand "to better assess their knowledge of the multiverse," whatever he meant by that. Peter actually asked what he meant during class, and Pym had looked downright philosophical for a moment. "I'm interested in doing whatever is necessary in making this the best Academy in the multiverse," he said finally.

"O-kay," Peter drawled, shrugging. "It's cool, man."

"Very cool," Pym replied with a solemn nod. Then the maniacal grin was back. "That's science!"

Drax, who tended to remain very silent and stoic if he wasn't smashing the punching bag or the drum set at Club Galaxy, glowered at Pym. "You're an imbecile."

"Well, that's just rude," Janet cried, glaring at him with her very best glare. "You have to be respectful to your teachers!"

"Y-you gotta be kidding me, right?!" Rocket piped up incredulously. "This guy's a moron!"

"Do you think you can do better?" Janet demanded, thrusting her lower lip out at him. She never made disparaging comments about his size or that he resembled a raccoon, or that his best friend was a walking tree. Still, she looked like she was sizing him up for a taxidermy lab.

"Of course I can!" Rocket scoffed.

"Well, then," Pym said, puffing out his chest importantly. The move made Janet sigh and smile at him dreamily, though he didn't notice. "Let's see what you can make from the sample set of chemicals I have set up for today's lesson."

The grin Rocket gave him should have been a clue that this was a _terrible_ idea. Pym didn't know his reputation at all, though, and the Avengers Academy students didn't know Rocket well enough yet. AIM students were geeks and dorks, but otherwise easily handled at the science fairs. Hydra students were bullies and cowards beneath the surface.

The Cosmic Conservatory kids were _crazy._

Rocket ambled up to the front of the lab and proceeded to mix an odd assortment of chemicals without even watching the measurement notches on the glassware. He swirled it, the jet pack on his back keeping him elevated above the ground. Drax nodded thoughtfully as he closely watched Rocket's movements. "I approve," he said after a moment.

"Thanks," Rocket said, a snide edge to his voice. "Needed the validation there."

"You are most welcome," Drax told him somberly. "The need for validation is great, and best accomplished when you actually perform well."

Pym just stood there, arms crossed. After a moment, he hit the button on his belt to become Giant Man, and he perched on the edge of a half wall, peering over the lab bench where Rocket was working. "Hm. Interesting method of experi—"

The entire combination changed color abruptly, and Rocket's mouth dropped open. "What the flark?!" he shouted.

Sensing an imminent disaster, Pym shrunk down and disappeared through a vent in the floor. The Avengers Academy students understood that there was about to be an explosion and ducked beneath the level of the lab benches.

Rocket and Drax didn't know that yet, and caught the explosion right in their faces. Peter had been far enough away that his shirt didn't catch fire the way Drax's did.

No one could escape the smell of burning hair for the rest of the week.

***

"How did we get alien plants on campus?" Sam asked, sneezing as he waited on line to use the Asgardian Forge. "I think I'm allergic."

Nebula looked at him disdainfully. "Haven't you any biological filters installed?"

"They're called 'lungs,' and I was born with 'em," Sam told her. "Not all of us have cybernetics."

"Pity," Nebula huffed, lifting her chin. Half of her body was some kind of metallic alloy that made Tony drool with envy for his Iron Man suit, and there were sensors enhancing her vision, sense of smell, and hearing.

"You know, if you're that unhappy here, you could try to go back to the Cosmic Conservatory," Janet said, catching the end of the conversation as she approached them while texting. She and Nebula didn't see eye to eye, but she even managed to avoid sounding snide.

"There's nothing there. My adoptive sister and her loser friends destroyed it."

"Well, that's rough."

A few other students began to mill around them as well rather than simply walk around Janet, whose attention was still on her phone. At least it was more polite than simply walking through her or knocking her over. One of them, Scott Lang, obviously had a crush on Janet; there was a current betting pool for when she would realize it.

"There were still ruins to pick through," Scott piped up as he walked over to stand next to Janet. He tried grinning at her, but she didn't notice it. "Maybe it's more that there was nothing Quill thought was valuable. Yondu didn't seem impressed, either."

"Ravagers," Nebula said scornfully. "Useless dregs of society."

"Oh. Flunked out of the school, huh?" Scott asked.

"They weren't in the same assassination classes I was."

"Wow. They really have classes like that?" Janet asked, sounding a little too eager. "Here, you have to kind of read between the lines for classes. I mean, destroying robots seems to be fun and games, but the poor robots are so scared of us, and the way we take them down would kill humans, too. I feel better going to the range than the Robo Dojo."

"Fury replaced the bullseye targets with robot torsos," Scott reminded her.

"Oh. Right. Gross."

Nebula scoffed at them. "Amateurs."

"Well, yes," Janet replied with a smile, not phased in the slightest. "That's why we're still in school and not out on our own yet." She eyed Nebula's ripped outfit critically. "You know, you don't have to look like you just crashed to earth. Why don't I fix you up a bit? Still keep your punk rock vibe, but make it a little more impressive? Then you'll truly rule Club Galaxy."

That seemed to soften Nebula's attitude toward the pixie. "You think so? Just an outfit?"

"We need to brighten up your swords, make it really pop. Not that silver isn't bad, but it just kind of blends in with the arm and leg, you know? Gamora likes the strappy look, too, but I’m sure we can still put creative slashes in the pants and keep that left sleeve open so we see the cybernetic arm. How do you feel about pink and purple blades?"

Nebula's eyes had narrowed at mention of Gamora. "You designed her new clothes?"

"She said she had a concert coming up, and gave me some tech scraps to make my really sweet null gravity gun. Have you seen me hopping all over campus in that outfit?" Janet preened. "The retro futuristic look is _in,_ I assure you."

"I would totally wear it," Scott declared, raising his hand. His glance at Janet was so obviously adoring, Nebula's lip curled in disgust at the sight of him. Janet preened and snapped a selfie, then uploaded the photo.

Sam sighed as he fought off another sneeze. Waving to get Janet's attention, he smiled at her weakly. "Hey. Think maybe someone can cut down the alien trees or uproot some of those funky pink plants?" He gave his classmates a plaintive look. "I don't like those funky purple and pink mushrooms. They look weird."

"They could be delicious," Janet said.

"They could be poisonous," Sam said.

"I dunno. The trees have those yellow knobbly things," Scott mused. "My ant buddies love the pollen and fruits they drop."

"All part of the terraforming process," Nebula said in a flat tone.

"What?" Sam cried.

"What?" she replied innocently, shrugging. She turned to Janet. "So, when can you have my new clothes ready? These are little more than rags."

Janet's grin was as bright as the explosion from their crashed ship. "Let's go get started!"

***

The resident enchanters were fascinated by the purple crystals that had crash landed along with the ship and the Chitauri. While Ronan was occupied by fighting with the Conservatory students, the Enchantress suggested mining the crystals for themselves during the student council meeting. Steve had been surprised that she showed up and had demanded that other students attend as well, and had been equally surprised when they showed up.

"What good will the crystals do for us?" Pepper asked, an anxious edge to her voice. "We need to keep our students safe, and a move like that will make Ronan angry."

Actually using her given name of Amora, the Enchantress stood and strutted to the front of the meeting room. Tossing her hair imperiously over her shoulder, she crafted an image of the crystals out of her green magic. "There is power in these crystals, even those damaged and fractured when they were strewn about so carelessly. So mining them for ourselves will give us access to a greater and better source. No contaminants from being tossed about in the wreckage," she said, wrinkling her nose in distaste. "Then they can be refined in the forge or used to enchant artifacts," she said. "I'm sure we can use them to assist in creating weapons to fight the Chitauri roaming the Academy."

Loki looked at her suspiciously, crossing his arms and leaning back in his seat. "It's not in your nature to be so helpful."

Amora looked at her nails, bored. "I can afford to be nice to the mortals. They help me gather materials for my spells."

"Though they are so easily broken," Loki snarked.

She glared at him, lips pulled back in a snarl. "Your tired tricks are useless here. You'll never get approval from your father at this rate."

"Careful," Loki drawled, barely containing his rage. "You'll mar your complexion."

With a huff, Amora drew a hand back as if she was about to cast a spell at him. Tony abruptly stood up from where he was sitting toward the back. "We should pair up, then. Get twice as many crystals from those mines, and it'll be a check and balance."

Smiling contentedly now, Amora walked down the aisle toward Tony. "Excellent. I will allow you to be my companion for this."

Tony looked around desperately, but Steve pointedly didn't meet his gaze. His shoulders finally slumped, and he nodded. "Okay, fine. I'll go with you."

"I will assist, of course," Loki said. He looked over at Natasha. "I'm sure you can decipher the controls on the mining equipment and make sure I don't do anything underhanded."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "As if you can get anything past me."

"Then it's decided," Steve declared. "You guys get the crystals, the Conservatory students will battle Ronan and the Chitauri. The rest of us will use the distraction plans that we all came up with in our tactics classes." He grinned. "They actually came in handy."

Pepper had a pleased smile on her face. "It's always good to be prepared. You never know when the next attack will come."

***

Nebula was only too happy to get her new outfit and twin swords. She swung them around, a crazed grin on her face that sent most of the Avengers Academy students running. The Chitauri didn't seem to understand her need to slash and hack, and the battles on the sidewalk were messy and frequent. Higher level Chitauri soon streamed out of the wreckage, but Nebula only trained incessantly between the battles. Not to be outdone, Gamora did as well; she had an alarming tendency to slam the punching bag hard enough to swing it around and nearly break it off its chain. A new gauntlet was built using bits of Chitauri armor, and Gamora gleefully hacked and slashed at the dummies there. Peter and Rocket shot at them with their blasters, sometimes using the rockets on their feet to swing around and get aerial shots; Peter was definitely just as interested in showboating as he was in hitting the target. Drax just attacked and tried to splinter the armor to pieces.

Janet bounced around campus with her null gravity gun, and chortled with almost demonic joy when she shot a few Chitauri and had them hovering above the ground and spinning around, arms flailing. Rocket shot them down with a gun bigger than he was, laughing just as loudly as Janet did.

"It's all right to feel a little bit terrified, right?" Scott asked Tony as he helped to unload the crystals from the mining equipment. His ant friends made that work quick, so that Tony could go back in for another haul while Ronan was occupied.

"Of aliens? These guys seem bent on destroying the school, so sure."

"No, I mean of Jan." Scott glared at him when he laughed and shook his head. "It's not funny, Tony. She's scary. In a hot kind of way."

"The scary hotness is Natasha. Maybe Jessica."

"Which one?"

"Either. Or. Whatever." Tony waved a hand dismissively and dumped out the rest of his salvage container for a group of ants to carry to the forge. "Jan's cool. Weirdly focused on some things I have no interest in, but she finds it fun. She'd have our backs in a second, though."

Scott sighed. "I wish knew how to get her interested in _me."_

"You're kidding, right?" At Scott's unhappy sigh, Tony stopped what he was doing. "Oh, no. Dude, you're not kidding at all."

"Nope."

"She went out with Rhodey once," Tony mused, lips pursed. "She's one of my best friends, so it's really awkward asking me this. You should probably ask him what got her interested."

"But I don't know Rhodey."

Tony tapped the gauntlet he wore and it instantly dialed him. "Yo. Good time to talk?"

"When is it ever?" came Rhodey's dramatic sigh. "I'm hovering over the campus and taking pot shots at the Chitauri skiffs if they come too close. What's up?"

"I need you to talk to Scott about how to date Jan."

He made a strangled noise and tried to reach over to shut down the connection, but Tony danced out of the way as Rhodey sputtered. "But I didn't do anything! I mean, we were at the blasting range hanging out, she said she was impressed, and we went to see a movie in the City. That was it, I swear."

"I suck at guns," Scott wailed.

"Look, you shrink into an ant," Tony pointed out. "She shrinks into a wasp. How does this insect symmetry _not_ work? Rock those robots at the dojo and make sure she sees how awesome you are at it. _Talk_ to her. I promise, she's not _that_ scary."

"Are you kidding?" Rhodey chortled. "She totally can be if you piss her off."

Scott groaned. "You guys _suck."_

"Well, yeah," Tony replied with a shrug, not fazed at all. "But that doesn't mean it's not true." He glanced at his bin. "Okay. I think Ronan's in the quad with Peter, Gamora and Nebula. I can squeak in one more mining operation." He eyed Scott. "Sure you and your ant buddies can't come in and help so I don't have to deal with Enchantress?"

"After this," he said, gesturing toward a group of ants heading to the forge, "we're going to an ant party. I think they figured out how to make drinks from the alien plants."

"And you didn't invite me. How rude," Tony said, a facetious note to his voice.

"Not cool guys," Rhodey agreed. "Not cool."

"Well, I don't know what it'll taste like yet. I'm taking one for the team and making sure it's not actually poison like Sam thinks."

"Good save," Rhodey laughed. "All right. I'm shutting this off now, looks like Ronan's about to hand their asses to them on the quad. Get moving, get those crystals. I'll keep the random guys busy and out of your way."

"Gotta love it when a plan comes together," Tony laughed, jogging back toward the mine.

Shaking his head, Scott grabbed the last batch of crystals and headed to the forge.

***

"Grenades! I need more grenades!"

"Not something I ever thought I'd hear someone say on campus," Sam remarked with a sigh, ducking around the blasting range. Drax had shouted "Behold!" at a group of Chitauri soldiers, and the next thing Sam knew, he and Steve had nearly been thrown into the sandbags.

Steve shook his head to clear it, and then looked around him at the sidewalk where he was sprawled beside Sam. "Peter has those elemental guns, Gamora has her sword, Rocket has that missile launcher, Drax apparently has fists and grenades..." He frowned at Sam. "I think I saw Tony using his repulsors on Ronan."

"Don't forget Janet," Sam pointed out. "Buzzing around and shooting Chitauri with that gun or her energy blasts."

Natasha ran past them, a Chitauri staff in hand and three foot soldiers giving chase. She had a fierce grin on her face and her eyes were alight with pleasure.

"Still not the weirdest thing we've seen here," Sam commented, looking at Steve.

"She's fast. It was one of the skills she listed on her tactics chart."

Sam was about to reply when he thought he heard something in the pause between blasts. "Uh, wait a sec. Is that _music?!"_

"Drax and Gamora did mention that they were in a band together at their school."

"Man, how do you remember these things?"

"Photographic memory." Steve sat up and looked over the line of sandbags. "Okay, the coast is clear. I think we can head from here to the quad and see if they have similar tactical plans as our school does. I wouldn't be surprised if they do."

"They apparently have classes on assassinating people. And Gamora keeps thinking there's a fight club on campus."

"With all of the battle preparation classes? I wouldn't be surprised if there really was one," Steve remarked. "Think they'd let me join?"

Sam sputtered as they sprinted from the blasting range toward the quad. "There's a portal next to Club Galaxy!" he cried.

Sure enough, there were craters in the concrete from Drax's grenades. But he had abandoned that tactic since most of the remaining Chitauri foot soldiers were chasing Natasha and Janet around the campus and weren't available to fight for Ronan any longer. Ronan had ducked out through a swirling blue portal, presumably to heal, but Loki and Enchantress were blocking the way with some kind of artifact they had made at the Asgardian forge with the purple crystals they had all mined. Ronan lifted the universal weapon, but their purple crystal artifact simply absorbed its energy blast.

Peter ran up and holstered his elemental guns. "Dance off, bro!" he cried. "Just you and me! Drax and Gamora already have the beat ready, and the rest of the onlookers will vote on who's got the best moves. Loser leaves the campus."

Ronan sneered at him. "You will lose, boy."

Snorting, Peter shook his head. "Betcha a bowl of ramen that I won't."

That seemed to give Ronan pause. "I do like ramen," he said after a moment's consideration.

"Everyone does," Peter said with a grin, hands on his hips. "So whattaya say? Dance off?"

"Fine. Dance off."

Sam looked at Steve incredulously. "Seriously? We could have avoided destroying half of the campus if they just did a dance off?"

Steve returned his incredulous look. "They really do things differently at the Cosmic Conservatory, don't they?"

Peter and Ronan took turns dancing to the music at Club Galaxy. Rocket, Groot and Nebula joined in, and the rest of the Academy students simply stood back and watched. Even some of the Chitauri soldiers stopped giving chase to watch. Peter definitely could feel the music, and Ronan was fairly stiff. His movements didn't fall in time with the beat, and one of the Chitauri centurions began laughing and pointing in amusement.

Ronan flew into a rage and lifted his universal weapon to smite his own soldier. The remaining Chitauri began to snarl at him, and then began to launch themselves at Ronan. Peter stopped dancing and nodded at them solemnly. "Yeah, man, that was a really dirty move. I thought he valued your efforts, too."

One of the Chitauri generals that had taken his helmet off put it back on after saying "Tshwi ahwnit hio wiopth vuiow!"

"Right on!" Peter cheered.

Most of the Academy students simply stood there and watched as all of the Chitauri ganged up on Ronan. The Guardians of the Galaxy joined in and helped them, and finally the universal weapon was taken from him. Nebula shattered the head of the weapon, and Gamora broke the staff over her knee. Drax seemed to be enjoying hitting Ronan with his fists far too much, and Rocket was knocking out the remaining Chitauri.

"I feel pretty useless," Jessica Drew sighed, looking over the chaos in the club.

"So do most of us in this event," Sam sighed, shaking his head. "You know what? I'm going to go find Kamala. I think I need a lot of downtime after this."

"We all do," Steve agreed.

The Guardians were only too happy to clean up the mess at Club Galaxy. It kept Fury from being _too_ mad at them, because once Ronan and the Chitauri were gone, and the wreckage cleared from outside of the gates, all of the students remained on campus.

Of course, there was always going to be _something_ happening. Still, the more students, the merrier.

The End


End file.
